The Healing Begins

It has been a long, hard struggle but I think that I am finally starting to shake the last of that terrible disease that has affected my blog and the updates about our trip.  I have learned that I had "Keys" disease.  It is a terrible affliction that over powers most people who stay too long in the Florida Keys.  It affects the mind mostly, but also the body.  With "Keys" disease, one chooses fun over work.  Little things like strolling along the beach, taking dinghy rides, visiting other boaters and attending Happy Hours is more important than washing the boat or keeping a blog current.  There just was not enough time and no rainy days.  Well it has taken 2 weeks but I am starting to feel better.  I will start reporting on the journey since we left Marathon and with any luck will go back and update the entry for the time in Marathon at a later date.

Marathon to Key Largo

(Wed. Feb. 16 - Dist: 64.5 mi;  Avg Speed: 9.6 mph; TTT: 7:00 hrs)

The next leg of our adventure is taking us up to Riviera Beach where we will meet up with a number of other boats that will be going to the Bahamas with us.  We left Boot Key Harbor via Sisters Creek with 2 other boats but before even reaching the Atlantic Ocean one of the boats had to return to port because of an engine problem.  The boat, 'Finally' from Jekyll Island, and Q's End continued along the Hawk Channel inside the Florida Reefs to Islamorada where we crossed back into Florida Bay so that we could catch the IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW) once again.  Everything was fine until we were north of Upper Matecumbe Island and south of the Everglades National Park.  We got into some real, REAL skinny water.  For about 5 miles we kicked up silt because the water was so shallow, less than 5 feet.  We knew that we were at low tide but what we did not know was that this day the tide had reached the lowest that it had been in the past 17 years.  It was almost a foot lower than what the charts indicated. 

We did make it through and after a very tiring journey reached Key Largo where we stayed at Glibert's Resort.  It was a welcome sight; right on the ICW and a Tiki Bar and Restaurant right at our boat side.  The food was excellent.